Bandstand Season Ends With Traditional Slightly Wrong ‘Autumn Leaves’
The Municipal Band’s final concert drew 300 residents, 12 dogs and one heckler, who was shushed by the dogs.
The Cozy Town Municipal Band closed its summer season Sunday evening the way it has for forty-one years: with a rendition of “Autumn Leaves” in which the trombone section arrives at the bridge roughly one measure before everyone else.
“At this point, if they played it correctly, there would be a riot,” said conductor Fitzwilliam Baton, who long ago stopped correcting the error and now simply cues it. “That measure belongs to this town.”
The concert drew a season-high crowd to the green, where residents spread blankets, traded thermoses and conducted the annual argument about whether the streetlights coming on during the final number counts as “planned.”
This year’s lamplight cue landed, by wide agreement, perfectly — flickering on precisely as the clarinets went quiet, drawing the traditional low “ohh” from the blankets.
The band returns in June. The trombones, a spokesman confirmed, will be ready early.
Viola Reed covers arts for The Cozy Town Times and can usually be reached at the bakery, second table from the window.